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feel. In a single word, I am certain that I can safely represent mostly how said students feel:
overwhelmed. All the new responsibilities and requirements expected from freshman law students
are, for a lack of a better term, shocking. One such shocking expectation that new students soon
realize, for example, is that everyone is expected to prepare for a first-day recitation or recit.
Nothing quite shocks the senses of a neophyte to learn that he/she would be tested before even
getting to learn anything. “Huh? First-day recit? Absurd!” one could even quip. Such idea is simply
contrary to the conventions of testing in school; but therein lies the fundamental problem.
The word “school” in law school is arguably misleading—it can lead a person to think that
since it has the word “school” in it, and since people generally will have incurred years of
experience in various other schools prior to this one, adjusting anew shouldn’t be so hard. After
all, schools are generally all the same insofar as they simply require you to study. But given this
presumption, said person would be very, very wrong. Such has been made obvious to me at this
point; that law school is not at all like what “school” meant to me prior to this point in my life.
Whereas “school” in high school or in undergraduate studies simply necessitated that I study, law
school on the other hand requires that I dedicate myself to the endeavor. If a person was able to go
through his/her undergraduate by casually studying, same person cannot likewise do the same in
law school. To do so would be tantamount to academic suicide. And even if a neophyte were given
the benefit of advice by other people who have already went through law school, no advice will
Having said all of this, I believe I am still in the process of adjustment. As I write this, I
know that I’m still learning the ropes. The old adage that goes “no man is an island” holds truest
In said lecture, we were told that surviving law school to eventually become lawyers
Inspiration logically should first be present. Rightfully, inspiration should be what propels
people to enter law school. For people who are adamantly decided to go into law school, inspiration
should come easily enough. For if one does not have an inspiration to hold on to when the crawl
along the dredges of becoming a lawyer becomes dreadful, one is also likely to just walk away at
After inspiration comes now the need for focus. As aforementioned, the path of every law
student is filled with adversity. Despite this palpably negative forecast, one must maintain the
attitude of having their eyes on the prize. With the abundance of adversities, minor failures and
setbacks are inevitable. Enduring focus will then come into play—every man falls but the just man
rises.
While the first two elements may be deemed necessary only as times and situations call for
them, the third element shown in the lecture is one that has to be ever-present: perseverance. While
breaks are naturally necessary, perseverance must never be absent for most parts in this journey.
It is highly factual that the pressure to perform is constant in law school. Therefore and in order to
survive, one must likewise be constantly exerting force against this pressure. It seems that the
virtue of perseverance must permeate in everything all the time. Such a notion is horrifying enough
to petrify, I find. After all, who has the heart and the patience to persevere in everything all of the
time? But I likewise find that said notion is of utmost importance and necessity in order to thrive
in this concrete jungle we call law school. The virtue of perseverance is similar to the virtue of
excellence inasmuch as it is something that requires constant practice. In light of this analogy, one
may perhaps apply in essence the quote of Aristotle that goes “We are what we repeatedly do;
excellence then is not an act but a habit.” But honestly and even after having said all of that, I am
Finally, there is the element of having a good heart. To be completely candid, I do not
regard myself as a person who has a good heart. I believe that I’m a decent human being at best,
but never have I considered myself to be kind and good-hearted. SBCoL has so far helped me
adopt a more community-minded approach to things, but I’m not sure if the extent of my
compassion can reach any farther beyond what I have been used to all my life. In fine, I will at
least recognize that there are potential benefits to be reaped if I were to sow with good-heartedness